Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It might be far more important for an applicant from the Minister’s area to know about O’Brien’s Bridge or Ardnacrusha, County Clare, or Montpelier, County Limerick, than it would be to know about places in south Tipperary that he or she will never service.

There is a hands-over-the-ears mentality in the NTA. It does not understand there are jobs being put at stake. When I raised this with the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport, it replied that where there is a glaring lack of hackney drivers in rural areas, it will set up a new licence rather than addressing the fact that the knowledge test is designed for people to fail, particularly if one comes from a large county or a peripheral area like I do in west Limerick. God help the applicant in Athea, Glin or Abbeyfeale trying to pass the Limerick knowledge test. One of the questions on the test, which I have seen, asks on what street in Doon, County Limerick, is the post office. No one from Abbeyfeale will know that.

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